StarTrek Tweaker Talks Perils of Remastering Original Series

When Star Trek designer Mike Okuda began remastering the original Star Trek episodes for a series of DVD releases, there was a chance that the show’s more devoted fans would want him beamed to a Klingon prison planet for altering the 1960s classic.

"The final DVD installment arrived just before Thanksgiving, and there are still a few fans who seem determined to be disagreeable," Okuda (pictured) told Wired.com. "But that’s probably just a side effect of the anonymity of the internet. The overwhelming majority seems to appreciate the work, even if some disagree with our choices."

The remastered episodes look and sound crisp, thanks to digitally restored imagery and audio. But the more daring work involved updating the shows’ visual effects with CGI to bring them more in line with the look and quality of later Trek efforts.

Alternately bold and subtle effects, from more realistic planets and spaceships to a blinking Gorn, bring the show up-to-date without destroying the classic appeal of the original. (See a remastered scene from "The Doomsday Machine," embedded.)

Okuda says he was wary when he and his wife and partner, Denise, first heard about the remastering effort in early 2006.

"The notion of redoing the visual effects for the original Star Trek had been raised several times over the past decade or so by several different parties," Okuda said. "And, of course, the idea has occurred to nearly every fan."

Okuda says he was initially reluctant to get involved with the project due to scheduling problems, but also because of reservations he had about tweaking the sci-fi classic. Talking with Remastered Trek producer Dave Rossi about the project, Okuda insisted that the new effects would have to be closely based on the originals to retain the visual spirit of the ’60s series.

He made suggestions about what to update, and warned about possible pitfalls, with Rossi listening patiently, according to Okuda.

"Finally, he interrupted me and said something like, ‘Look, if you feel this strongly about it, why don’t you come on board? Otherwise, don’t complain,’" Okuda said. "Think about it. If someone offered you a job as producer — even retroactively — on the original Star Trek, what would you do? Turn it down? I don’t think so."

Apart from some of the more militant die-hard fans, response to the new versions has been positive. But Okuda said the best response came when Bob Justman, one of the original series’ producers, called him out of the blue.

"He was one of the people whose sheer determination and ingenuity and hard work made the original Star Trek what it was," Okuda said. "So when Bob called and started talking about the remastered episodes, I was more than a little nervous. To my relief and joy, he said he loved them.

"He said that he loved the remastered episodes — that the new versions looked the way he’d always wanted them to look."